Shirley's Story
interview by Asad Ali
as published in The Spark! #23, December 2011
90th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Canada
Through much of the 1970s the
progressive movement in Canada was lead by the labour movement,
driven largely by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), and in the CAW's
forefront was Local 199 in St. Catharines, which in turn was lead by
the Unity Caucus influenced by the local Communist Party club.
The
Spark! interviewed Shirley Hawley, an Aboriginal woman who was a
rank-and-file autoworker and a Communist Party member who fought
first-hand in many of the battles that laid the basis of strength for
the Canadian left in the 1970s. Shirley currently is an active CAW
retiree and is also the Secretary-Treasurer of the Communist Party's
Eric Blair Club in Niagara.
Background: Early Years of the Communist
Party in Niagara
Prior to the strategic role in the CAW
in the Canadian left, Communists had been active in Niagara since the
early 20th century. Newspaper accounts show how in 1930
eleven party activists were arrested in Niagara Falls for attempting
a peace march in coordination with comrades from the CPUSA across the
border. In the summer of 1935 unemployed workers went on strike at
relief camps in Welland, organized by Communist Frank Haslam among
others, for the second time in order to get charges withdrawn from
strikers arrested earlier and also for the right to use their
vouchers at stores nearby instead of having to hike just to cash
their pay. Haslam and four others had been arrested after the
provincial police threw tear gas bombs at the unemployed. In
December of 1936 Local 199 of the United Auto Workers (UAW, now CAW)
at the McKinnon (now GM) plant in St. Catharines was founded with the
leadership of Haslam and the help of the unemployed workers movement.
When the Communist Party of Canada was
banned in 1941 Niagara communist Charlie Weir had been arrested in
Windsor by the RCMP and accused of being both a communist and a union
organizer. He was successfully defended on most of the charges by
David Goldstick, the father of the current editor of The Spark.
In the summer of 1946 striking Canadian
Seamen's Union (CSU) sailors had to fight scab ships on the Welland
canal, defended by police on-board. The CSU strike, lead in part by
communists such as Mel Doig who was in his late 20s, was assisted by
UAW and International Chemical Workers Union (ICWU) locals, the
latter lead by George Gare. This was followed by a summer-long auto
workers strike in 1948 in St. Catharines to get the same pay as
Windsor and Oshawa workers, lead in part by communists such as Local
199's vice president Lloyd Hawke. The CCF, forerunners of the NDP,
were criticized publicly by both the Labor Progressive Party (LPP,
Communists) and the union for urging a settlement and collaboration
with management.
Management had declared the strike illegal and, as
with USW 1005 Hamilton steelworkers today, tried to get the
membership to bypass the elected leadership and vote on the offer.
The leadership rejected this trick, and even when the union did later
vote on the offer, only one member voted to accept it. In the fall,
the Labour Board allowed the company to prosecute the union for the
strike. The next year two party members, activists in the United
Electrical workers (UE) and CSU, were elected to the municipal
councils of Crowland and Humberstone, now part of Welland.
In the Red Scare years many Niagara
communists were purged by social-democrats in collusion with
management and right-wing politicians. In 1949 George Gare was fired
in-person by the International (i.e. US) President of the ICWU for
connections to local communists. In 1957 the ICWU raided Niagara
Falls chemical plants from the UE. However, from 1953 to to 1971
communist Gordie Lambert was GM plant chair and Unity (left) Caucus
leader for the CAW's local 199 in St. Catharines. In 1973 Port
Colborne union activist John Severinsky successfully fought his
expulsion from the Steelworkers for handing out a supplement on food
prices of the Canadian Tribune,
forerunner of the People's Voice
newspaper, a month after his election to the Inco local's office.
These latter incidents were contemporary to Shirley Hawley's working
life at the St. Catharines GM plant.
Interview with Shirley Hawley
Spark: How did you join the
Communist Party?
Shirley Hawley: I was involved
with the NDP and I didn't like it: didn't like their ideas, theory,
and what they thought the future should be. I remained in the NDP
for less than a year. I was elected as my riding's financial
secretary. The riding association was split. There was a left and a
right. My way of thinking was always to the left. I had no
political education up to this time. I became a single mother and
had three children to look after and was out in the labour force. I
knew things weren't right. Then I got a job at a union plant, GM was
then McKinnon with local 199. I was still involved with the NDP and
not happy with the way they were going. I started in the foundry.
There was a strong left caucus there. I got involved with them. I
liked the way the committee men represented you and I felt
comfortable with them. I attended a few of their meetings and got
involved. They could depend on me when they wanted to take action.
I got involved with the party. I
wasn't a member but I was very close to them. I belonged to the CCW
(Congress of Canadian Women). I was selected to be one of 120 women
from Canada, we were invited to a women's conference in the Soviet
Union, Moscow.
My eyes were opened up to women's rights and things
like that. It was put on by the women's part of the Communist Party.
There were a lot of professional people there and academics. I felt
quite comfortable there and attended all their sessions. I could not
go to all of them, there was not enough time. The ones I did go to I
spoke at. They claimed to be interested in me because I was on the
floor in the labour movement, working at an auto plant.
The conference was 2 weeks long. I was
invited to stay over for another week by the women's committee and
tour auto plants there. They wanted me to tour and give them an idea
of our plants and what differences there were. I was quite impressed
with how the Soviet Union was running at that time. I came back in
'87 I think it was, and I joined the party. I was very close to the
party in the Niagara region. A lot of it had to do with Eric Blair
(the organizer). I've been a member ever since.
What
impressed you about what you saw in the Soviet Union?
Their education. Women working alongside of men at the same
wage. You could do anything, any work that you wanted to do to
better yourself. Medical things were open for women there. I was
very impressed with their day care at work and a lot of it was in
their community. You could drop your children off on your way to
work. Daycare was quite convenient for you, not a long way to go for
daycare and then a long way to work. Quite different from what we
have here!
Most women still had to buy their daily
groceries to make their meals, (the) only negative thing that I saw
for women. Housing was adequate, great programs for their youth,
sports activities, in the music field, (public) palace of this palace
of that, social participation of children learning. Kids were
allowed to go to the ballet and the opera. Most of our youth can't
afford that and it's not available for them. Always had a good
sports program. You could see that in the figure skating and hockey,
I imagine all the other sports too. That's what I was really
interested in
Can
you tell us about the illegal strike or walk-out you were a
part of?
The
Unity Caucus - Left Caucus - we were in the foundry and an
employee got disciplined from higher up because something went wrong
and it wasn't this employee's fault at all. It was a supervisor
(at fault) but he was covering up his mistake by getting rid of this
employee. This happened on the midnight shift. When we came to work
in the morning, all the union left-wing delegates, they spread the word and they said that they
were going to take action around 11 O'clock in the morning. When you
get the word, you spread the word and you talk all morning and when
the time comes you get the people to follow you. We had a great
attendance of the people, almost all the people walked out. We kept
them almost 24 hours, nobody coming in, no deliveries trucks or
parts. We caught some of the supervisors (at the entrance) and told
them what was happening. Some turned around and went home, and some
didn't.
Early morning one supervisor wanted to
go in and I asked them not to and explained everything. He said I'm
going in (anyway). I just got in front of his car and laid down in
front of it. He waited a while but he turned around and went home.
It was something that I did out of reflex, on the spur of the moment,
and after I realized what I did I was really scared and frightened.
I was just so much into what I was doing, it was automatic.
Did
you win on the issue?
I got served by the labour
board. Several people did. The employee that was fired wasn't
fired, he got his job back. The whole story came out, the supervisor
was reprimanded. He didn't get fired, didn't lose any time. Didn't
lose any management. Almost everyone (on strike) that they caught on
camera lost a day's a pay, lost some money. But I got wrote up and
it was on my record. I think I lost a day's pay and all. That was
it. The employee kept his job. We won but it was an illegal strike
and the union had to pay some money.
I obeyed them and (CAW) 199 got that
all squashed. I was served so many papers, boxes (full). I never
did read it. One of the main fellows in our left supporters, he told
me “Shirley you've done your job, now go home.” Anyone that got
served, the union could be liable $1000 a day. Quite high. I obeyed
them and the union didn't have to pay anything. There was some
settlement, it was an illegal strike.
All strikes used to be illegal. It's
coming back in Canada. Some unions don't have the right to strike
yet. We've got this government that will legislate you back to work.
Its not good for the union. What power does the union have? That
was one of their main strengths was to strike, that was a landmark
for the union when they got it. When the contract is up (and) you
can't come to a settlement, you have the right to strike.
When
that's taken away from you, your rights are being eroded, taken away.
It has been going on for quite a few years.
The unions are losing ground and losing power, conceded for different
wage scales. With the job loss and downsizing of our industries,
it's a way of keeping the ones that are there still working. Don't
blame the union, the union has had to make a lot of concessions for
10 years or so but it's slowly breaking up the unions.
Can
you tell us about how the Unity Caucus (left-wing) lost
influence to the Blue Slate (right-wing, within the union local), and
the influence of the Communist Party?
It
was the early 80s that they (the left) lost the power. There
was some building of egos, an ego fight within the caucus. Someone
who was a protege of Gordie Lambert, he sold Gordie out and went the
other way. It made a big rift in the caucus, it lost strength then.
Because of the infighting and the disagreements, they couldn't
operate with these two ideas of how to handle a problem. And then
what really put the kibosh on the unity caucus was when one committee
man during a shut down agreed to, not sure just exactly what, but it
was classifications right in the contract. He agreed to give these
up. So when the workers come up to work, this agreement was in
place. We didn't know how it was possible: it wasn't even
negotiation time, but it turned out that it was. I really don't know
how. People lost faith.
This committeeman who did this was
supposed to be a unity slate guy . Turned out he sold us out, the
deal was for him to give up this classification of certain areas and
he had quite a easy way at work. A lot of times he wasn't there and
still got paid. People seen that. The only thing they had (in
response) was to withdraw their support. Very few of the unity slate
guys got elected the next time around. It just went from bad to
worse.
We had a left-wing plant chairman,
Gordie Lambert, but that as high as the unity caucus went. There
wasn't that much Party influence. We did as much
as we could with the members we had, helped on the picket line and
different protests. We did march with our banner “Communist Party
of Canada” for the first time in the 1995 labour and community groups' Days of Action against Ontario Tory Premier Mike Harris, that to me
was a big thing. Eric Blair (club organizer) was invited out to
speak at different things. He was well respected, he was awarded
from the labour council a plaque. I also was, from the labour
council, awarded for being an activist. I've been active in my
community and the peace movement. Eric Blair had been around for
many many years and this the first award he ever got. It was
delivered on his death bed! Took a long time. He was well
respected. We all were. So many people agreed with us but just
couldn't vote for us.
I ran for school trustee and got a very
good reception. There was a spot open as I was told he (the
incumbent) wasn't going to run anymore, and I started with my
literature and going door to door which was something that wasn't
heard of for school board trustee. On local cable TV they all didn't
show up (for a debate). It was a given that the same people over and
over would get elected. It's still like that, “old blood.” I
started with my partner Don Quinn and Toronto helped us, the
Provincial Party Office. This fellow that was going to not run, all
of a sudden decided he's out there (running). I got a very big vote
but didn't get elected. I got invited to all the meetings where the
candidates speak. When I was canvassing I had people say “you're
the first school trustee to come to my door.” They just assumed they got elected. I never followed that before I got
involved, didn't know that's the way it was. These same people had
been in for years.
The Eric Blair Club was the first
communist club that went into the union hall on different days there
was a public event, such as
International Women's Day. When the notice went up that you could
rent a table and came, I applied and we got it. We were quite
visible, right around our table “Communist Party of Canada.”
People were shocked but they were interested too, had a lot of
inquiries.
Our downfall was we didn't have a lot
of people. I guess we didn't interview them enough, talk
to them enough to see if they were real
(communists). Didn't know just who was honest.
What is some advice you would give to new members?
Get
yourself educated and find out really the background, the struggle of
the party and what we really stand for. A lot of people that come in
think they have a lot of action, marches and protests, but that isn't
all that's there do. I think the best thing is get yourself educated
and really know what the party's all about. No one knows now with the struggles
that we have, this is the only party that's going to help the people
out of the situation . The era that we're in, all the issues that
the other parties have they don't take in the working class people
that are working, struggling, lost their jobs working for minimum
wage or low wages, two and three jobs to support their families .
Everything (prices) is going up, there just aren't enough jobs
around. The govt has allowed this. You have to really get yourself
educated and understand. I picked the women's issues. I worked on
that. I organized women in my union on the women's committee.
I think picking an issue to find out
what you really want to work in, it would be more effective that way.
Join a club, find out what your club is doing and how you can help.
One other thing is we have to distribute our paper, the People's
Voice, that's very important.
The people that are involved that are
communists, comrades, I've never met more hard working, sincere
people in my life. There are so few of us and they work so hard,
whether it's when an election comes up or it's a protest or getting out to
support a strike, delivering the paper. I don't think the history is
much different (now), we don't have the people and the people really
don't realize what's happening to them. When that happens and they
realized what happened, we'll have history in this time. We'll have
more communists and more history. People have to start to fight
back. It's gotta happen with what's happening now, especially the
young people and I think the party sees that with the YCL'ers (Young
Communist League). It's growing in different provinces. Right here
you've (to interviewer) had some success. These are the people
that's going to make some history.
Can
you tell us about your plant experiences as an Aboriginal
women?
I
haven't really worked on that. In the area I am
living in (retired) now, I have been asked to come out to their
meetings and get involved with them. The President of the Native
association here just left my house, I get a lot of info from him.
It's quite a highly populated area of Aboriginal people. I was very
proud of my mother, I got my bloodline from my mother. I was proud
of that that. I didn't like it when people characterized people like
being a “drunken Indian”, (I would say) “but I've seen a
drunken white person,” things like that. “They don't work,” (I
would reply) “if you were taken out of your environment and way of
life you might be acting like that too!.” They have problems but we're coming a long way with addressing their problems and
educating.
I knew I had to got involved. Some
organization had to fight for women. I had three children and had to
get a job. I had to show I was in the process of getting a divorce
as they wouldn't hire a married woman (on the production
line)! Office staff could meet someone at the plant and keep their
job. In 1964 they had a two-tier wage scale. I worked beside a man,
we ran a machine together and he got a dollar an hour more than I did.
He did one end, I ran the other end. That changed, that was one of
the reasons really I got involved. Things weren't right for women.
I was a woman with kids, wanted to have a future for them and support
them .
As for the NDP, they weren't going to
do nothing for us. That's the way I went. I drifted and I met
communists and liked them, and their way of thinking. I knew I'd
found my place.
